Monthly Archives: November 2013

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Thanksgiving has come and gone, and yet, you still have all of this free time on your hands. Planning on going to the movies? Before you do, check out this book review from Ariana Orne:

Catching Fire (Book 2 in the Hunger Games trilogy)by Suzanne Collins

A book I would recommend is Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. Last weekend, the movie came out. After seeing the movie, It made me realize how much more value a book can have then something on a screen. The book portrays different meanings behind things and gives the story more meaning. It includes scenes that may not be as vital in a movie, but in the book there is much more emphasis and importance on this story. If you are looking for a quick enjoyable read, this is one for you.

Collab, the BHS literary magazine, sponsored a book donation today where the English Department was able to mail over 100 unused literature textbooks to Liberia, where they will be used in underfunded classrooms. Check out the Collab page for more details!

Didn’t catch the release of the school newspaper? No problem! There are still some copies available in the school library. But if you wish to read a PDF of the paper, you can find that on the Devil’s Advocate web page.

Jamey’s book recommendation marks the first student entry that we received for this webpage. If you wish to endorse one of your favorite books on our page, please send Mr. Lally your recommendation (5-10 sentences on why people would like this book) and we will post it when we can. Thank you, Jamey, for your book recommendation!

Silver Linings Playbookby Matthew Quick

This is book is very well written. Quick makes the narration of the main character Pat Peoples very believable. Pat Peoples does tend to swear and even get a little violent but Quick makes you sympathize with Pat because the the way his thoughts and opinions are written and described. After reading this book you will find yourself thinking like Pat Peoples. Maybe after reading about Pat’s story you will begin to recognize silver linings in life.

On his blog in 2008, Neil Bowers compiled ten lists of “top 100 books” into one master list, based on what books showed up how often and how well on each of the ten lists. The lists themselves ranged from the purely academic to public opinion polls, and considered lists from the US, UK, Canada and Australia.

If you are looking for a good read over the upcoming vacations, here is a great place to start!

We are pleased to see 12 core BHS titles on this list, including three of the top four, now that 1984 has become a core text for British Literature (starting within the next 2 years). If you include books that have recently been used in our AP courses, or that have been taught within the past 5 years at BHS, then our list is around 17 or 18 titles.

The Devil’s Advocate, the BHS newspaper, is back in print! The first print edition of the newspaper since 2010 came out today, and it looks great. The Fall 2013 paper features articles on the new staff members at BHS, previews of the fall play and the student government’s 2013-14 plans, reviews, news, games and more!

Congratulations to the Journalism students, and especially to our Journalism teacher, Ms. Graham, for getting this paper out to everyone. And BHS, if you didn’t get a copy this morning, look around – you’ll probably see a teacher or student reading up on what’s going on at BHS.

It’s Coming! The eighth annual Poetry Out Loud competition has declared its official dates for the 2013-14 school year, and this year, our semifinals and our finals find themselves on opposite sides of midterm week. The dates for this year’s competition are as follows:

Semifinals (all-day event, open only to English classes): January 15 (January 16 as snow day)

This year, all seniors and juniors will attend the finals. Any sophomores or freshmen who have an English class during either of the two periods of the finals will also be in attendance. The Poetry Out Loud print anthology has not been updated this year, so the list of eligible poems that are NOT on the Poetry Out Loud website remains the same as it was last year. That list, as well as the BHS house rules for the competition, the history of the competition and its winners, and more can be found on the BHS Poetry Out Loud page.

At the top of this page, you’ll find a “Read It” tab, where BHS English teachers (past and present) have given book recommendations along with a quick description of why you might like to read the book. But not it is your chance to take the reins!

If you would like to write a book review for our Read It! page, we will be accepting submissions between now and December 20th. Provide the title, the author, and a brief (5-10 sentence) explanation of the book (NO SPOILERS!) and why your BHS peers might like to read it. If you can add an image of the book cover, that would be great as well. These recommendations can be classics, beach reads, books that are being turned into movies, or non-fiction. Just tell us what you like, and why it is awesome.

To submit your book recommendation, please email your thoughts to Mr Lally (lally@bpsk12.org) and we will get to as many of them as we can. Thanks!

(PS: This offer is also available for teachers and staff as well – let’s see what you have on your must-read list!)

If you haven’t checked out the latest BHS after school club, The Devil’s Playlist, then what are you waiting for? The Devil’s Playlist is a music appreciation / music journalism club that meets to discuss music, and that writes reviews and recommendations about different styles of music (the advisor is BHS English teacher, Mrs. Janovitz). They’ve recently begun a series where they have teachers reveal what songs they really likes when they were 16 (The entries by Mr. Whitten and Dr. Nassif are truly excellent), and they also feature recent reviews and essays by Matt Martin, Irina Grigoryeva, Yitzhak Maurer, and Matt Ackerman. So if you are interested in discovering some great new music, or just finding out what everyone else is listening to, check out…